


Why didn't you change your mind?

by Miralana



Category: Peaky Blinders (TV)
Genre: F/M, I'm Serious, Just Trigger Warning: Billy Kimber, and Grace is done with these men, and nobody is happy at the end, in which Tommy is Tommy, mention of attempted rape/non-con, prompt: what if Tommy didn't change his mind
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-25
Updated: 2013-10-25
Packaged: 2017-12-30 11:26:17
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 863
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1018053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miralana/pseuds/Miralana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>For the prompt: What if Tommy hadn't come back for Grace at Kimber's house.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Why didn't you change your mind?

She has been walking for nearly a hour when a car appears beside her.

She doesn't look at him, doesn't want to acknowledge his presence.

Thomas Shelby isn't used to people ignoring him.

He lets her know that by stopping the car right in front of her and getting out of it. He closes the door by slamming it shut with a loud noise.

“Grace.” He starts and she turns her head around to him. She doesn't know what she looks like but she can imagine it. Wild hair, rumpled clothes. She looks like she feels.

“Don't you dare.” She simply says and he stays silent, but holds the door open for her. After a few seconds of staring at him, she gets into it.

 

They're silent for the rest of the ride. She doesn't know what Thomas thinks because as always his face doesn't show a single emotion. Like he isn't even able to feel anything. She is not so sure any more, that that isn't the truth.

She's also not sure any more if she shouldn't just resign and it takes her all her mental power to not talk herself out of the mission.

It isn't easy. She just has to think about Kimber's hands on her body, his breath against her skin, his mouth on her own and she wants to vomit. There's a faint memory rising at the back of her head, of a different man who took the choice from her but she pushes it back where it belongs.

She doesn't say anything but she can't suppress the shaking of her fingers.

 

He doesn't let her go when they reach Birmingham. Graces flinches when Thomas pushes her gently to the Garrison and he lets go of her arm immediately and settles to the lot more comforting way of simply putting his hand on her back.

This time it's her who sits on the chair and Thomas who gets the glasses and the whiskey.

He lets her take two shots, before speaking again and she doesn't know what she expected – a rebuke because she dared to risk the success of his precious business arrangement by hitting Kimber over the head with a glass, before threatening him with her gun – but as always Thomas is a man full of surprises.

“Are you okay?”

She stares at him. Cramps her fingers around the glass and thinks about throwing it at him, like she did before. These two men are not so different. They both think they have the power to decide over her body. Like Mr. Campbell. Like all men. She is so sick of them.

He obviously notices her reaction and raises a hand.

“Are you _going to be_ okay?” He corrects himself and Graces falls back into the chair. She hadn't even realised that she had started to get up.

“Eventually.” She says after a long silence. She will get over it. She always does.

Thomas nods, probably already thinking about how much money he'll need to pay to safe his arrangement with Kimber.

As if he'd read her mind he says. “There won't be any consequences.”

“For him or for me?”

She gets one of his _eyebrows raised, just a second away from eye rolling_ looks. Of course.

She can't expect anything else. It's like Harry said to her in the first month. She can't do anything if somebody wants her. She can try to get revenge or to make his life a living hell _afterwards_ , but without a father or brothers or a husband she has no one to protect her. Not even Mr. Campbell, even if he likes to refer to himself as a father figure.

And she knows now – has always known – that the only person in this god forsaken city who can protect her long enough, so that she can finish her mission is Thomas fucking Shelby.

And if she can't fight for herself, she'll just need to make him fight for her.

And he won't even know that at the same time she'll plan his downfall. With his own help.

 

She discovers the location of the guns six months later and she watches as Mr. Campbell arrests Thomas – knows that he will hang for this and she feels sorry, because he has been kind to her and she had enjoyed their time, but she can't forget the loss of control and the fear she had felt when he had abandoned her all those months ago. When she looks at the ring on her finger the next morning, she sighs because this isn't what she had wanted but it is better than nothing and protection is still needed.

She hears about Arthur Shelby's suicide and Freddie Thorne's upcoming trial a few hours later when she waits for Mr. Campbell – it's Chester now, she has to remind herself – at the train station. When she hears footsteps approach she turns around to greet him and looks directly into the barrel of a gun.

Polly Gray looks at her with tears in her eyes and determination written across her face and Grace has time to blink once, before she hears the gunshot and everything turns to nothing.

**Author's Note:**

> This took me longer than expected, because I spent a lot of time with the question if Kimber would have raped Grace or if she would have been able to get away. I kinda wanted to do the first thing because I would have loved to write the story of how her and Tommy could've still fallen in love but I knew that I wouldn't be able to portray it right and I think if you're dealing with an topic like rape, you need to do it right.  
> That's also why I decided to let this end like this, even after choosing the second option. I desperately wanted to find a way for them to still be together but I don't see it happen. I don't think Grace would've fallen in love with Tommy if he hadn't come back. So it's a sad end.  
> Dear anon, I hope you still like it?
> 
> [my tumblr](http://everknowing.tumblr.com)


End file.
